“Suncor Energy Inc., Canada’s largest energy company by market value, reported its first quarterly loss in 3 1/2 years after a charge of C$1.49 billion ($1.49 billion) related to its Voyageur oil project in the province of Alberta, which may face cancellation.
The net loss in the fourth quarter was C$562 million, or 37 cents a share, the biggest in at least two decades, compared with net income of C$1.43 billion, or 91 cents, a year ago, the Calgary-based company said yesterday in a statement that also disclosed it faces a possible C$1.2 billion tax bill. Operating earnings fell 30 percent to C$1 billion.
“The economic outlook for the Voyageur upgrader project is challenged,” the company said in the statement. “Suncor and its partners have agreed to minimize expenditures on the project pending a decision” on whether to proceed at the end of the first quarter, the company said.
The Voyageur upgrader project, being built by Suncor and a unit of France’s Total SA, will process about 269,000 barrels a day of bitumen from the Fort Hills and Joslyn mines, according to Total E&P Canada Ltd.’s website. The plant will use the heavy bitumen to produce 218,000 barrels a day of synthetic crude oil. Construction of the plant began in January 2012, according to the website.
Suncor Chief Executive Officer Steve Williams has been evaluating expansion plans since taking over from predecessor Rick George last year. The company is looking to reduce costs amid an expansion, including its oil-sands operations that may boost output to 1 million barrels a day by 2020.
